An Antique Carved Italian Mirror

Constructed using a finely carved pine frame; of rectangular form, with a putto surmount, shown lowering drapes, to two lower putti, within a Bellflower swagged border, and housing a beveled mirror plate. Signed by the maker ‘Valentino Besarel Venezia’.
Italian, Circa 1880

Excellent, retains original mirror plate

Provenance: Robert Windsor-Clive 1st Earl of Plymouth (1857 to 1923)

Robert Windsor-Clive was the grandson of the Hon. Robert Clive and Harriet, 13th Baroness Windsor, daughter of Other Windsor, 5th Earl of Plymouth. In 1869 he succeeded his grandmother in the barony of Windsor.

As Lord Windsor he served under Lord Salisbury as Paymaster General between 1890 and 1892 and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1891. Under Arthur Balfour he was First Commissioner of Works between 1902 and 1905, during which period he was responsible for the transformation of The Mall into a processional carriageway and passed the plans for the Queen Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace.

In 1903, Lord Windsor gave the mirror to Hugh Allan Pettigrew as a wedding gift for his marriage to Alice Southwell Cardell.
Thence by family descent.

Valentino Panciera Besarel (1829–1902)

Born in Zoldo, near Bellune, home town of the great carver of the Seventeenth Century, Andrea Brustolon, he was encouraged by his father to study under Professor Federici, and worked as a carver for a noted architect Guiseppe Segusini. Later, he received private commissions, and in 1861 his trade card listed amongst his clients Edward, Prince of Wales, the British Consul and the King of Italy. He exhibited at the 1878 Paris Universelle Exposition, and won a Gold Medal. The churches of Este and Conselve, near Padua possess groups of saints executed by him; armchairs in the manner of Brustolon signed by Besarel are recorded.